The Gustavus Men’s soccer team went on a four game winning streak with victories against St. Olaf, Augsburg, Presentation and Bethel, but the streak was snapped when the Gusties traveled to Winona to take on Saint Mary’s on Wednesday, Oct. 11 when they fell 2-0.
After the loss the Gusties move to 9-5 overall and 4-2-0 in the MIAC. The loss to Saint Mary’s was the Gusties’ first in 32 games.
Gustavus fought through a close contest against Augsburg, coming out victorious 2-1 after scoring both goals in the opening period.
The scoring started off with a goal from Senior Matt Murakami just over 23 minutes into the match with the assist coming from Junior Arthur Parens.
Murakami would tallie another score for the Gusties only nine minutes later off of a header assisted by Kyle Monson.
These would be Murakami’s second and third goals of the season.
The Gusties would register ten shots against the Auggies four while tallying five corner kicks to the Augsburgs two.
Augsburg would score in the second half off of an unassisted Aidan Sim-Campos goal.
This would end the scoring as Gustavus fought off Augsburg for the rest of the match, securing a 2-1 win against their division rivals.
Gustavus would go on to shutout Presentation College 4-0 in a non-divisional matchup in South Dakota where Arthur Parens registered a hat trick in a stellar performance.
Parens’ first goal would kick off the scoring for the Gusties, scoring off an assist from Junior Daniel Barnes 12 minutes into the first half of play.
This would be the only goal scored by Gustavus in the first 45 minutes despite sending 15 shots at Presentation’s Aaron Riccardi.
The scoring onslaught would begin in the second half as Parens’ second goal would come at the 53 minute mark off an assist by Monson.
Freshman Nolan Garvin would score halfway through the 70th minute, his second of the season, off an assist from David Almaer.
Parens would complete his hat trick five minutes off an assist from Murakami and the score would plateau for the remainder of the contest.
The Black and Gold would tally 16 more shots in the second half to go along with a barrage of corner kicks, recording 12 in the second period and 16 overall.
Parens’ trio of goals would be his seventh, eighth and ninth goals of the season. He would lead the game with ten shots.
“Arthur took his goals very well. He was actually frustrated not to score more. That’s a goal scorer for you, never satisfied,” said Head Coach Mike Middleton.
The duo of Matt Bateman and Anders Severson would combine for the shutout in goal while Bateman’s record improved to 8-4.
“It’s good to follow up the nice win away at Augsburg with another good performance,” said Middleton.
Gustavus would then go on to shutout Bethel University this past weekend 4-0 at Gustie Soccer Field with four different Gusties registering goals.
The scoring would start late into the first half as David Almaer would score his first goal of the season off of a penalty kick just over 36 minutes into the first half.
Sophomore Luke Laurich would respond to his teammate’s goal with one of his own just six minutes later off an assist from Scott Heinen.
Gustavus recorded 13 shots in the first half while also registering four corner kicks.
Bethel would register four and two respectively.
The second half scoring would begin just under minute in with an unassisted goal from Matt Gibbons and a late goal from Cody Billins would end the scoring for Gustavus and complete the four goal shut out.
“We certainly started strongly creating a whole cadre of chances off the bat. We managed to get a number of players into the game at various points, with all the lads stepping up to provide good energy,” Coach Middleton said.
The Gusties would finish with 23 total shots and nine corner kicks.